


Friday Night Patrols

by salazahr



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts, Humor, Marauders, Marauders' Era, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 19:27:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4361384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salazahr/pseuds/salazahr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My mind kept travelling back to Frank and I felt a knot in my stomach. I had no idea how I would go about flirting with him. I wasn’t a flirty person. I was mildly amusing and loyal; a true Hufflepuff. Hufflepuffs aren’t charming or flirtatious. A plan began to form in my head. </p>
<p>Libby has been in love with Frank for as long as she can remember, but on her sixth year she decides to do something about it, maybe even with the help of the strangely unwilling marauders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friday Night Patrols

Have you ever liked someone so much that you can barely admit it to anyone? I have. I do. His name is Frank Longbottom. He is a Gryffindor. He is a perfect. No, wait, I mean prefect. Like me. Last year we did our Friday rounds together; guarding the castle, one hallway at a time. He’s head boy this year, so no more Friday rounds together for us, but this year will also be the year I finally work up the courage to ask him out. Or have him ask me out. I don’t know. My friend Julie says that guys don’t like women that are blunt and straightforward. I don’t know how I’d go about getting him to ask me out, though. I’ve never really been great at the art of seduction. 

“Stop overthinking it,” Julie had said. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t give him the time of day, it’ll only make him want you more.” I regarded Julie’s advice with a tinge of suspicion. 

“That’ll only work if they have a relationship already. Or at least talk a lot. He’d just stop trying, or think that their connection hadn’t lasted through the summer,” Diane, the more rational of the two of them, stated. I had to agree with Diane, as per usual. 

“So she’ll just try to forge a relationship and then ignore him,” Julie suggested. Diane stared at her doubtfully. “Or, and here’s a thought, she’ll just forge a relationship with him and build from there. No games involved,” she said. 

“But games can help,” I pointed out. “They were invented for a reason. I don’t know the first thing about flirting. I need a game,” I had said. But they weren’t here. Julie and Diane’s parents had pulled them out of Hogwarts since their family were known blood traitors. They were going to Beauxbatons now. So I sat in the train all by my lonesome thinking about new ways to seduce the utterly perfect Frank Longbottom. Of course I wasn’t the only girl that would be playing for his affections this year. Or any year for that matter. I had liked Frank since my third year, when he helped me sneak an already due essay into Slughorn’s office. The next two years after that we hadn’t really spoken, but then all of a sudden it was fifth year and I was a prefect and he was the sixth year assigned to show me the ropes and we were guarding the castle together. Suddenly our connection wasn’t imaginary anymore. Or at least I think it wasn’t. 

“Mind if we sit here?” Remus Lupin asked, peeking through the compartment door. I shook my head. “Not at all,” I said and scooted closer to the window. Remus was a sixth year prefect as well, but he was in Gryffindor. Like Frank. He and his friends sat down. The four of them were rather notorious troublemakers, but generally well-liked. James Potter sat down across from me, with his messy, jet black hair and brown eyes. I had never sat next to him in any class or really interacted with him outside the norm. Then there was Sirius who had dark hair and grey eyes. I had sat next to him in Arithmancy fourth year for a couple months and he had always smelt like exploding snaps, but as far as I knew he didn’t play. Or at least Remus had been laughing about how afraid of exploding snaps Sirius was at one of the prefect meetings last year. Of course not in front of the Slytherins, since they probably would have done something about it. Bizarre. Anyway, then there was Peter Pettigrew who had sandy blond hair and blue eyes. He had been in my extra credit Care of Magical Creatures class last year (courtesy of Professor Kettleburn) and he was hilarious. He could crack jokes like he was a professional comedian, which I always found cool. He could spot a punch line in anything. It was quite impressive, really. Lastly there was Remus who was nice and funny and he always seemed to be the most modest of the bunch, although all of them were up for trouble in my experience. 

“Hey, I heard Julie and Diane won’t be coming back this year,” Remus started. “That’s gotta be hard,” he said. I shrugged. “Eh, whatever’s safest for them, I suppose. I just wish this war could be over, y’know?” They all nodded, James maybe more fervently than anyone else. There was a solemn sort of silence. “I’ll bet you’re all happy you sat in this joy ride of a compartment now. Am I right?” I joked and they chuckled, somewhat distractedly. 

It was going pretty well, I thought. Maybe I could channel some of this newfound charm while seducing Frank. How wonderful would that be? “Hey, Libby, shouldn’t we head to the prefects’ compartment?” Remus suggested and I got up, leading the way to the front of the already moving train. “How was your summer?” Remus asked. I shrugged. “It was all right. We went up to my great grandparent’s cottage in Lincolnshire. There’s a small gathering of wizards and witches there so it proves for a nice escape. There’s no one under eighty that lives there, though,” I told him and he grinned. “How about yours?” I asked and he jumped into a story about his and the guys’ crazy summer adventures. Apparently Sirius had been staying with James for the summer and Peter and Remus went up there every weekend or more often. 

“How do you think Frank and Dorcas will manage the prefects this year? Ought to be a right challenge with a war brewing and all,” Remus said and I nodded, my thoughts trailing to Frank once more. “You and Frank are mates, right?” Remus asked and verbally shook me out of my stupor. “Well, we patrolled together on Fridays last year, so I suppose so,” I said, feeling rather tingly that Remus had noticed our friendship. “Yeah, well I’ve been hearing rumours that he’s teamed up with some secret order against You-Know-Who. Know if there’s any truth to it?” he asked. 

I considered for a moment, deciding I wouldn’t put it past Frank at all. “It’s highly plausible,” I admitted. “We’re not close or anything, so he wouldn’t really have told me. Why do you want to know?” I asked, but after a second’s thought I added: “Interested in joining, are you?” 

Remus nodded. “Well, yeah. The guys and I want to join the fight against You-Know-Who in every way we can once we graduate,” he said. “Don’t you?”   
“I’m a Hufflepuff,” I reminded him. “We don’t do much.” He chuckled at my lame attempt to diffuse the tension. Although I had already decided to help in the fight against Voldemort myself, I felt like sharing it with someone might jeopardise that somehow. That maybe the person wouldn’t think I was capable of it and that that might in some way shut down any urge to fight that I’d been feeling over the past few years. Maybe they would even try to talk me out of it. Especially when that someone was like Remus, both incredibly nice and incredibly skilled. I don’t know how I’d handle him laughing at my future aspects as an auror or just a simple death eater fighting witch. I’d probably curl into a ball and die of shame and discomfort. 

“After you,” Remus said, holding the door to the prefects’ compartment open. I slid past him and immediately felt the warmth that seemed to occupy the prefects’ compartment at all times. It smelt like butterbeer and happiness, too. Maybe that was just Frank, though. “Hey there, stranger,” Frank said with a grin, he was sprawled across a cozy seat with plump pillows. He looked taller than I remembered him, but then again I had discovered last year that his proportions were a bit off; making him taller sitting than would otherwise be expected. His hair was a mane of curly, dark brown locks that was currently pulled away from his face and presumably held back with a hair band. His eyebrows were thick, but they framed in his blue eyes perfectly. He was by all accounts gorgeous. “We’re just waiting for everyone to show up and then we’ll start orientation,” he said and glanced at Dorcas who was holding a leather-bound notebook and scribbling furiously. “What are you doing?” he finally asked. 

“I’m just adding in some last minute details about this year’s patrolling shifts and such. A bit on Halloween decorations, but not much,” she said. Dorcas was already wearing her robes and the silver in her tie caught the light, illuminating the emerald stripes. I wasn’t sure whether it was brilliant or idiotic to have a Slytherin and Gryffindor as head girl and boy, but Dumbledore probably knew what he was doing. Whatever the case, Dorcas seemed fully prepared to take on any obstacle the year might throw at her, but she had always been the most likeable of the Slytherins, in my opinion. Maybe she was meant to bring the houses closer together, in an effort to stop the separation already taking place in the school. It was an awful lot of pressure to place on just one girl.

Remus sat down next to Lily Evans and I sat down across from them, or rather next to Frank. Frank smiled at me. “How was your summer, Libby?” he asked politely, but also with interest. “Oh, it was great. I went up to Lincolnshire to visit my great grandparents and I ran into some french teenagers and ended up playing a lot of quidditch, if you’d believe it. I even tried my hand at quodpot, it was really weird. Slightly enjoyable, though,” I told him “How about yours?”   
Frank shrugged. “It was all right. Can’t say I did much of interest, but it was fun,” he said and smiled. “So, sporting adventures, huh?” 

I grinned at him and burst into a grand narrative of my embarrassing loss to a twelve year old frenchman. By the end of it he was laughing almost to the point of tears, along with most of the compartment. The last prefect stepped inside, prompting Frank and Dorcas to take the floor. The fifth year I’d been assigned to was a burly Slytherin boy named Wilbert whose tie and teeth were crooked. He still had an excited sort of look about him which filled me with a warm feeling of relief. The other new Slytherin seemed much more guileful and malicious and I sort of pitied Theresa, the Ravenclaw who would have to spend every Saturday night with her. I would not be spending any of my nights with Frank, unfortunately, but my patrols were on Sundays and Fridays, just like last year, and I was patrolling with Remus on Fridays and chaperoning Wilbert on Sundays. 

Dorcas handed out a schedule that was even more detailed than the study guide Frank had lent me during my OWLs. It outlined the whole year in such a way that we probably didn’t even need the six meetings planned evenly over the year. Frank handed the eight new prefects their very own prefect rulebooks. The Prefect’s Rulebook was a book of only twelve pages but Dorcas stressed its importance so greatly that I could easily imagine the new prefects’ pockets feeling much heavier than the slight book under any other circumstances would have allowed. 

The orientation ended and a few of the fifth year prefects and three of the older Slytherins left to return to their previous compartments. The rest stayed around to chat. Tim the Hufflepuff, as he was known by most, seemed to have a question burning on his mind. “Did you guys hear what happened to Professor Winslow?” he finally asked and everyone but Frank shook their heads. Frank nodded solemnly. Tim the Hufflepuff moved to continue: “He was killed fighting death eaters just last week. I saw it in the obituary section, he just got a single line space. I just can’t imagine anyone being able to replace him on such short notice.” 

“They’ve already found a replacement,” Frank said. Everyone turned to look at him. “How do you know?” Dorcas asked. It was a fair question. There was no reason Frank should know what no one else did. “Well, when I saw the notice in the paper I sent Dumbledore a letter, figuring that since I was head boy I ought to know something about it. He said they’d hired Gideon Prewett,” Frank said matter-of-factly. It made sense. Frank thought of everything. 

“Well, all right then,” Dorcas said, but she was still regarding Frank with a hint of suspicion. “But hey, we have some newbies so maybe everyone should introduce themselves,” she suggested. First in line to tell everyone a little bit about himself was Wilbert, one of the two Slytherins still in the prefects’ compartment. He was incredibly psyched to start the year and thoroughly promised that if he spotted members of his house behaving outside the rules he wouldn’t hesitate to dock points. Dorcas repressed a sigh. Every year there was one prefect prepared to make wild declarations and a few of the prefects had had a bet going what gender and which house they’d be in this year. Unfortunately for Dorcas she had bet on female Ravenclaw. Lily was grinning to herself, knowing that by the end of the train ride she’d be seven sickles richer. I’d bet on male Ravenclaw, which wasn’t so far off judging by the inspired look on the new male Ravenclaw’s face. There was a short pause before he jumped up, declaring his loyalty to The Prefect’s Rulebook as well. I suppressed my inner victory dance but managed to catch the bad end of Lily’s death glare. Three sickles for me, three sickles for her, what a life. I caught Frank’s grin as well and he leaned over towards me. “The look on Lily’s face is priceless,” he whispered and I laughed. “She’s still glaring at me, isn’t she?” I asked and he nodded, still smiling. We had a good talk and soon enough half an hour had passed. 

“Hey, Libby, feel like getting back to our compartment?” Remus asked with a smile. No, I did not. But I nodded and got up from my seat next to Frank. “Well, I’ll be seeing you around,” I told him and he nodded. “Hold up, I’ve got something,” he said and fished a sickle out of his pocket. “I believe I owe you this.” He handed me the sickle which I graciously accepted, filled with a sudden and strange desire to never lose the silver coin. “Oh, yeah, here you go, Libby,” Tim the Hufflepuff said and threw his sickle in my hand. I tried to keep his separated from Frank’s so I put Frank’s in my right pocket and Tim’s in my left. 

Remus and I headed to the back of the train. “What happened to you and Frank ‘not being close’?” he asked with a smile. “You barely talked to anyone else.”   
“Yeah, well we did spend a lot of time together last year, so I suppose it was a bit fun to catch up,” I said in a final attempt to seem nonchalant. He didn’t press any further. He put a hand in his pocket. “But I feel inclined to give this to you,” he said, handing me the third and final sickle. I couldn’t remember which pocket carried Frank’s coin and which pocket was intended for the other two. I slid Remus’ coin in my right pocket, hoping I hadn’t made the wrong choice. “I’m feeling very proud. You bet on Gryffindor, didn’t you? Male Gryffindor?” 

Remus nodded. “Yeah, unfortunately the Gryffindor male prefect is Stevie Carmichael, who I’m pretty sure could witness a murder without so much as a word to anyone. I doubt he’ll be snitching on his house any time soon. I was counting on Allan Archer making prefect. Alas no money for me, but it’s also rather lucky for Gryffindor,” he said. He was looking a bit down. “Have I ever told you about the time the guys and I broke into Filch’s office in between final exams?” he asked and I shook my head motioning for him to elaborate. “Well, it was on the second to last day of fourth year final exams, just between the written part of the transfiguration and charms exams so naturally everyone was off studying but Filch was still in his office, since everyone was studying and not causing a ruckus,” he said, smiling brightly. “Anyway, I talked Peeves into luring Filch away from his office,” he glanced at me, noticing my shocked face he explained: “It wasn’t so difficult, Peeves and I sort of have an arrangement, I just offered him a batch of dung-bombs, which he accepted, but he said he’d have done it just for kicks, then Pete unlocked the door, which only took a simple alohomora, if you’d believe it. Someone like Filch should probably defend his headquarters a bit more when there’s a school full of teenagers out to get him. Okay so we were in his office and we grabbed this heirloom of James’ that Filch had confiscated a couple days back. Can’t really tell you what, but it was worth the fuss, and we took a look at our file, which is sizeable,” Remus stated proudly. “Especially now,” he said with a coy grin, “since we doubled it.”

“Why?” I asked, my mouth agape. “Well, we didn’t add new offences or anything, we just added our own recounts of the incidents mentioned. We all keep separate records of our…well, records, so we always really know what was going on and we just added copies of our own records to Filch’s. Now if anyone ever reads our files they’ll see the incidents through our eyes as well,” he said. I just had to laugh. “That’s brilliant!” I exclaimed and he nodded. “Yeah, it was my idea to put them in there,” he said. “Sirius was the one to suggest we keep records and Pete is the one who actually writes it down. He’s a good pen,” he said and I found that easy to believe.

“He was in my Care of Magical Creatures class last year and I remember him being really funny,” I said and Remus nodded. We had reached our destination. “After you,” he said, moving out of the way so I could walk past him and into the compartment. I sat down next to the door now, having lost my window seat to James. Remus sat down next to me. 

“How was your prefects’ meeting?” Sirius asked. “Exciting?” he suggested. “Enlightening?” James and Peter snorted with laughter but Remus just rolled his eyes rather fondly. I grinned at Sirius and added: “Enticing?” The surprised and extremely pleased expression on Sirius’ face was almost touching. “Would you mind if I hugged you?” he asked. “I like you, I like you very much. I can see why Remus hasn’t introduced us properly yet,” he said. James shot him a stern look. “Well, I don’t consider myself a human being as much as I consider myself a treasure, so it’s understandable for you to be so enamoured of me,” I told him. They all laughed. 

“Hey so who was at the prefects’ meeting?” James asked. The guys looked tiredly at James. “You can just ask straight out how Lily was doing, James. You’re not fooling anyone,” Sirius stated. James glared at Sirius. “Fine,” he huffed. “How was Lily doing? Did she look all right?” Remus laughed. “Lily was fine, I spent most of the meeting chatting with her. She had a good summer,” he said. 

“Didn’t you spend most of the meeting with Libby?” Sirius asked. Remus shook his head. “Nah, we were in separate corners. She was talking to Frank. They’re mates,” he explained. Sirius nodded. “All right then, how is Frank?” he asked, turning to me. I felt one eyebrow raise itself involuntarily. I had a feeling I’d be asked about this secret order again. “He’s all right,” I replied, not free of suspicion. “Well, that’s good. Any idea what he’s been up to this summer?” he asked. I repressed a smile. “Yeah, he said he was fighting You-Know-Who along with his band of vigilantes,” I nonchalantly told them. A shocked expression crossed their faces. With a grin in my direction James exclaimed “I knew it!”. Remus was the first to react, he rolled his eyes. “James, she’s joking,” he said. James sank back into his seat with a huff and a disappointed, scolding look in Remus' direction. “I knew that,” he told him. “I was just playing along. Can’t believe I’m surrounded by humourless tossers.” 

“So how sure are you of this secret order anyway?” I asked, ignoring James. The guys turned to each other, having some sort of silent conversation. With a final nod Sirius spoke. “Very. There are signs of them everywhere,” he said. “There’s definitely something more than just the ministry working against the death eaters, and the papers are mysteriously avoiding it, ergo secret order fighting death eaters. Think about the mysterious apprehension of the death eaters who’ve been attacking shops in Hogsmeade, and how there was barely a word about it in the papers. If it had been the ministry they’d have blown it up, adding interviews with the ones that caught them. We’re not saying that this order isn’t working with the ministry, but it’s definitely top secret and consisting only of highly skilled wizards,” he finished with a flourish of gestures. I felt deflated all of a sudden. I would be of no relevance to this secret order. I doubt they’d need a skilled rule-follower and avid reader of magizoology court reports. 

“But more than anything they need wizards prepared to fight for what’s right, no matter how skilled,” Remus added, catching my eye. “That’s why we want to join.” 

 

The rest of the train ride was spent cracking jokes and talking about things, some important, some not as much. I also discovered that I really liked them. I liked them as a group and I liked them as individuals. Once the train came to a stop they insisted I ride in the same carriage as them to the school. 

“Come on then, Libby. We want to get an empty carriage,” Peter called and I jumped out of the train compartment, following the guys through the crowd and to an empty carriage that was near the end of the trail. Peter stopped to pet the thestral that I knew was there but couldn’t see. I already knew that Peter could see them, but it was different to see him see it. In our Care of Magical Creatures class professor Kettleburn had asked whether anyone could see the thestral standing in the middle of our circle. In a group of ten, three had raised their hands. This year professor Kettleburn was offering the extra credit class again. I hadn’t remembered to ask Peter whether he’d signed up again. I hoped he had. Frank had even been considering signing up for it, after having heard me talk about it all the time during our Friday rounds. I hoped he had as well. The class had been a good crowd. Just a bunch of third through fifth years that were interested in the subject. Now it’d be NEWT level, of course, which ought to prove for an even more interesting curriculum. I was only worried that there wouldn’t be enough sign-ups, given the war and that more people were interested in learning to duel and fight and whatnot. I supposed I should sign up for one of the duelling clubs popping up as well. Although only one of them was sanctioned by Dumbledore, but it was also Ministry supervised and they didn’t want the students learning anything more severe than a properly executed disarming spell and a simple (but effective) blocking spell. The most popular one had been Dexter Welling’s club, but he had graduated now. Wouldn’t surprise me if he had teamed up with the secret order the guys kept raving about. 

“Libby? You all right, there?” James asked, poking my shoulder. “Hmm, yeah just thinking a bit,” I told him. “What about?” he pressed and I shrugged. ”Not much. Duelling and Care of Magical Creatures, for the most part,” I replied. Peter’s head shot up. “Right! I always meant to ask you, are you taking Kettleburn’s extra class again?” he asked. “And his regular, obviously,” he then added. I nodded, feeling relieved. “Oh, great. None of these tossers have ever even pretended to be interested in coming with me,” he said, gesturing to the guys. “Hey, hey. For your information I’ve already signed up. I sent a letter to Kettleburn over the summer,” Remus told him. “Who’s the tosser now, tosser?” 

“This is why Remus is my favourite,” Peter said. Sirius and James clutches their chests with insulted looks. “Wait a minute. If I knew you’d be calling favourites I would have signed up as well!” Sirius exclaimed. “Well, I’m sure there’s still time to sign up if you really mean it,” Peter said with a taunting smile. “Oh, is that how you’re going to play it, Wormtail?” What sort of insult is wormtail? “That’s how I’m going to play it,” Peter confirmed, looking a bit concerned. All the guys were looking a bit wary at the moment. Wormtail had to be an awful thing to say about someone for it to get them so bothered. There was a weird moment of silent and I felt excruciatingly awkward. Sirius was the first to break it with an awkward chuckle and soon the guys joined in, laughing off the bizarre moment that was still somewhat bothering me. I wondered if Peter was really all right, since it seemed Sirius had really gone over the line with that one. 

“So, Libby,” Sirius started. “I’m curious. Libby has to be short for something, but what?” he asked. I was about to tell him when he stopped me. “Ah, ah, ah!” he exclaimed. “I’ll guess, and I will succeed!” he said and Peter seemed relieved. He was probably glad that Sirius had moved on to someone else. I regarded Sirius with mild suspicion. “Let’s start with the obvious,” he said. “Elizabeth?” 

“No, my name–” I started. “Shh,” Sirius silenced me. “Lisbeth? Olivia?” he suggested. “Wait, I can think of more,” he said. After a moment’s thought he added: “This is harder than I thought it would be, just give me a week to come up with more names.” 

I laughed and nodded. “You do that,” I told him. I was silent for most of the carriage ride. My mind kept travelling back to Frank and I felt a knot in my stomach. I had no idea how I would go about flirting with him. I wasn’t a flirty person. I was mildly amusing and loyal; a true Hufflepuff. Hufflepuffs aren’t charming or flirtatious. A plan began to form in my head. My plan revolved around whether Frank would sign up for the Care of Magical Creatures outside curriculum class.

**Author's Note:**

> Eyyo so this is my first fic on AO3 and I promise I have a plot! Hope you like it :)


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